Israel advances death penalty legislation for those carrying out ‘terrorist operations’

Palestinian protesters hold placards during a demonstration to show solidarity with Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails near Israel's controversial separation barrier in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, on Januray 9, 2018. Due to a Knesset bill that passed its first reading earlier this month, in the future jurists will have less restrictions when ordered the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of murders deemed terrorist opertations. (Photo: Wisam Hashlamoun/APA Images)

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Welcome to the monthly Jewish Voice for Peace Health and Human Rights Media Watch.Members of the Health Advisory Council monitor relevant organizations and websites and compile a list of important news and issues which are summarized here. These newsletters will be posted on their website and archived as a resource. If you wish to join this effort, contact [email protected]. Please feel free to share the newsletter with your colleagues and communities and encourage them to join the JVP Health Advisory Council. Thanks to all who have contributed!

Israeli Death Penalty Advocates Win Preliminary Vote in Parliament
Reuters 3 Jan — The Israeli Knesset intends to voted earlier this month to amend their penal code in order to remove restriction on judges issuing the death penalty for those involved in murders while carrying out “terrorist operations.” Reuters reports, “The amendment to the penal code would still require three more readings if it is to become law. Currently, a death penalty can only be imposed if a panel of three military judges passes sentence unanimously. If the amendment is adopted, a majority verdict would suffice.”

Mental health doctors continue to protest association’s decision to host conference in Israel
UK Palestine Mental Health Network Jan 14 — American mental health clinicians and psychiatrist Samah Jabr called on the International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy (IARPP) to reconsider its decision to hold its 2019 international meeting in Israel due to Israel’s long-standing human rights violations. In coalition with the USA Palestine Mental Health Network, JVP Health Advisory Council launched a petition campaign in early January that now has over 960 signatories. Please consider signing here. This effort has provoked a reply from the IARRP and heated discussion and pushback in Israel. From more information: Mondoweiss

NO SAFE SPACE: Health Consequences of Tear Gas Exposure Among Palestine Refugees
ROHINI HAAR, MD MPH JESS GHANNAM, PHD Jan 2018 —The Human Rights Center of the UC Berkeley School of Law published NoSafeSpace, an examination of the medical and psychological consequences of repeated and frequent tear gas exposure on Palestinian refugees. Working with residents of Aida and Dheisheh Camps they documented frequent, wide spread, indiscriminate and primarily unprovoked exposures as well as high levels of exposure to stun grenades, skunk water, pepper spray, rubber bullets, live ammunition, and direct canister hits indoors and outdoors. There were testimonies relating to the acute respiratory, skin and eye impacts as well as fainting, seizures, miscarriages, and other concerning chronic conditions, but no documented medical findings. High levels of anxiety and depression, including sleep disruption, acute stress responses, and chronic post-traumatic stress disorder were documented. There was wide spread concern that the tear gas currently being used is more potent than in the past and thus more dangerous acutely and chronically. For more information: Mondoweiss

Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights 11–17 Jan— A detailed weekly report on human rights violations in the OPT which are largely ignored by the U.S. media. As an example, the week of January 11-17, three civilians including two children were killed, 112 civilians were wounded from live bullets, rubber coated bullets, and tear gas canisters, 12 demonstrators were arrested, Israeli warplanes targeted a tunnel in southern Gaza, and Israeli forces conducted a total of 80 incursions into Palestinians communities with 101 arrests, 38 of them in Jerusalem. There were several shooting incidents targeting Gaza fishing boats, the closure of Gaza persisted, Israeli settlers began a road between Nablus and Qalqilya, and dozens of temporary checkpoints were set up and others were re-established in the West Bank.

Gaza’s Forgotten Humanitarian Emergency
Medical Aid for Palestinians 22 Dec — Medical Aid for Palestinians reports that severe restrictions of electricity and medical supplies are having a profound negative impact on the individual health of Gazans as well as on public health. Public health is impacted by the inability to operate sanitation and water purification facilities. The ability to provide hospital and office based medical care is severely curtailed by daily prolonged electricity blackouts, Medication and supply shortages, and damage to electronic equipment such as laboratory and radiology equipment which is subject to frequent power surges. Neonatal ICU’s are dangerously overcrowded and frequent power outages require manual ventilation of intubated neonates. More information: Palestine Centre for Human Rights is concerned that the Gazan health sector is at risk for imminent collapse due to shortages of medications.

Tightening of Closure
GISHA 15 Jan— GISHA, the Legal Center for Freedom of Movement reports that restrictions on travel to and from Gaza have been even further restricted. For the year 2017, passage at the Erez Crossing was 50% less than in 2016. “The closure imposed on Gaza by Israel for over a decade has severe, far-reaching implications for the lives of Gaza’s two million residents, obstructing economic development and crushing hope. Sweeping, arbitrary, and incomprehensible restrictions on movement must cease, immediately,” GISHA reports.

Japanese Foreign Minister Pays Aisit to Al-Quds University
Ma’an News Agency 27 Dec — Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono visited the Palestinian Al-Quds University on Dec. 27th, where he pledged to work to strengthen the working relationship between the Palestinian university and the Government of Japan. Japan has been contributing financial and technical support to Al-Quds University since the establishment of the Medical Complex in 1998, when Japan provided the Medical Complex with equipment. President of the University Dr. Abu Kishek told the Japanese Foreign Minister that Japan’s contribution has allowed Al-Quds University Medical Complex to “play a pivotal role in the improvement of the quality of healthcare in the occupied territories, which has for long been underserved and neglected,” reports Ma’an.

Palestinian Prisoner Who Died of Cancer in Israeli Custody Laid to Rest in Nablus
Ma’an News Agency 23 — Jan Hundreds of Palestinians took part in the funeral of Hussein Atallah, 57, who died from cancer inside Israel’s Ramla prison, in what his family is calling a case of medical neglect. Atallah was sentenced to 35 years of jail of which he served 23. He was diagnosed with cancer two years ago. Prisoners’ rights groups accused the Israeli Prison Services of medically neglecting Atallah and not providing him with necessary and adequate treatment, which they say led to his death.

Palestinian Child Prisoner Population Doubles over Last Three Years
Addameer 18 Jan — Addameer adds this information to the extensive coverage about the dire situation of Palestinian political prisoners–especially Palestinian children in prison. The arrest and imprisonment of 16 yr-old Ahed Tamimi is helping to shine the international lens on the issue of Israel’s flagrant human rights abuses of Palestinian children held in detention for acts such as hitting or throwing stones at soldiers or military vehicles. As this article states, the number of Palestinian children in Israeli prisons has more than doubled in the past three years. Currently there are about 350 children in detention. Israel is obliged by international law (the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Convention on the RIghts of the Child) to respect the human rights of all children in their custody.

Amid US funding Cuts, UNRWA Appeals For Health and Dignity of Palestinian Refugees
The Lancet 19 Jan— The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is the major source of health care, food security, shelter, water and sanitation, and education for 5 million Palestinian refugees. The total US contribution in 2017 was more than $350 million; the Trump Administration has announced it will be giving only $60 million this year. In this Lancet comment, UNRWA calls “on the good will of people all over the world to stand with us in solidarity and help #FundUNRWA to protect human welfare and dignity.”

Asylum Seekers in Israel Are Scared. I Am Scared For Them
+972 Magazine 29 Jan — In Israel, Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers lack legal status and access to basic services and rights. They do not have healthcare, employment, freedom of movement, higher education, and other basic services that Israeli citizens and legal residents enjoy. Most work under the table in low-paying and often dangerous jobs. They are not granted refugee status and are now being threatened with deportation to countries where they are at great risk. There are now Israeli voices in academia and in the religious community opposing the deportations and calling for the hiding of refugees in the spirit of Anne Frank. For more information: Independent and Haaretz.

Hebron: Israeli Soldier Injures Palestinian, 16, in the Head During Settler March
B’Tselem 14 Dec — B’Tselem focuses on restriction of movement and its effects on Palestinians. One incident reported involves an IDF soldier who struck a Palestinian youth in the head with his heavy gun, resulting in bleeding from the boy’s ear and gradual decrease of consciousness. This is consistent with a basilar skull fracture. An Al-Jazeera documentary reveals the health consequences of IDF restriction of ambulance movements in the West Bank and Gaza. Deaths occur on a regular basis when ambulances attempting to take critically ill patients to hospitals where advanced medical care can be provided. For more information: Al-Jazeera.

About Alice Rothchild

Alice Rothchild is a physician, author, and filmmaker who has focused her interest in human rights and social justice on the Israel/Palestine conflict since 1997. She practiced ob-gyn for almost 40 years. Until her retirement she served as Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Harvard Medical School. She writes and lectures widely, is the author of Broken Promises, Broken Dreams: Stories of Jewish and Palestinian Trauma and Resilience, On the Brink: Israel and Palestine on the Eve of the 2014 Gaza Invasion, and Condition Critical: Life and Death in Israel/Palestine. She directed a documentary film, Voices Across the Divide and is active in Jewish Voice for Peace. Follow her at @alicerothchild

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4 Responses

‘The Israeli Knesset intends to voted earlier this month to amend their penal code in order to remove restriction on judges issuing the death penalty for those involved in murders while carrying out “terrorist operations.” ‘

This will win them no friends in the European Union, where having the death penalty is a barrier to candidate states wishing to join.

@Misterioso
“This news brings to mind the tactics used by the Nazis during WWII to suppress resistance in France and elsewhere in occupied Europe”

I think the main tactic and mindset which they have inherited from the Nazis was the “collective punishment” one.

Unfortunately with all those claims of being the “only democracy in” and the “most moral” YAWN and it being 2018 with all those ubiquitous smartphones and live news streaming they (frustratingly for them poor victimised dears) can`t simply line up all the relatives and friends of the resistors and shoot them. Instead I think that to get over the frustration they have opted for routine demolition of houses together with the regular incremental murders of Palestinians as with the latest innocent 16 year old Palestinian boy.

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